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Chapter 54

Alexia

I was crossing the corridor when a woman with black hair in a man's cut that I had never seen before on a woman gestured for me to come closer, and I looked back.

"It's you, Alexia," she said and then turned to walk away. I frowned and followed her.

I had just left the garden, trying to figure out what I was going to do to escape from that place before it killed me, and now I was following a woman I didn't know.

She entered through one of the doors, leaving it ajar. I held it and opened it slowly. It was just an ordinary room, a simple bedroom with a large mirror in the middle.

"What do you see?" she asked, coming out of the corner of the room.

"My reflection"

"Touch the mirror" she asked and I approached it. Touching the mirror, it transformed as if it were water and moved a little, slightly tangling my image and for a moment, I saw a young woman with slightly curly hair, green eyes and pink lips, short stature and a sweet beauty, with skin that seemed to glow so clean.

"Who is she?" I asked, turning to the woman.

"Esmeralda" she looked at her reflection, which disappeared as the mirror returned to normal "He wants you"

I looked at her again.

"The king is greedy, if you stay in Zaim he will claim you as his property" she walked away at a calm pace, leaving only her words in the air.

My heart raced, I was so tired.

"I'm not property"

"And since when do men care about that?" she asked walking away, she picked up an empty cup and filled it with tea, turned and came towards me "He's the king of Zaim, he's done worse things when he was still a prince"

"You..."

"Am I his property? My body is sacred, his unholy hands broke it before he could touch me" she replied firmly, I knew she was a witch, there was no need to ask.

I looked at the cup.

"Don't worry, it's not poisoned. But it will help calm your heart"

I grabbed the cup and took a sip, still suspicious, after Soraya had expected something.

The liquid was bitter, but it went down like a tranquilizer, normalizing my heartbeat and leaving my body in a state of stress.

"Sit down" she asked and I nodded, sitting down on the sofa. She gently took off my heels and I felt like I was walking on clouds "I hate heels, mine have blisters as big as the ones you have"

"If you don't have to stay here and you know what the king is like, why are you here?"

"We all have a purpose, I feel like I'm fulfilling mine" she stood up, fixing her posture, I was drowsy, fighting sleep to continue talking to her, I had so many questions.

"You want to stay, but I don't. How do I get him to let me go?"

"I have no way of ridding you of the king," she replied, "Everyone has to face their demons alone."

I let out a sound, like a child, not understanding the limpness of my body.

"What's gotten into me?"

"It's just a medicinal herb that helps calm you down," she replied, "You can cook with it, drink it as tea or smoke it."

I frowned, there seemed to be three of them.

"I saw a witch in the forest, she told me things I didn't understand and..."

She pursed her lips as she used her index finger to silence me, asking me to be quiet, she said:

"This is no time to talk, rest!"

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Estevan

I had gotten close enough to the castle to keep an eye on who was going in and who was coming out of the gates. After three wagons with supplies, the sun had set and no one else was going in or out.

We had arrived in the city just in time to keep an eye on the gates and realize that there was a timetable for their operation just like in Olimper, the gates weren't busy at night so I had to rent rooms for a night and stay as close as possible, I didn't even know what time it was when I last looked out of the window to check the gates.

The anxiety and fear that Alexia was no longer alive was great, I wanted to go and fight the guards, act like a madman and kill them all, but I knew I would die before I even knew if she was still alive or not, so I needed to act calmly.

If King Octavian knew I was in his kingdom, he would slowly skin me until I died in agony from the pain.

No, I couldn't risk it because I depended on being alive to save Alexia, I had learned from what happened to Esmeralda and I couldn't let the same thing happen to her, but history seemed to repeat itself, which made my heart fail a little, the memories of Esmeralda made my eyes water, I hated the feeling of helplessness and not knowing how Alexia was, but I clung to the hope that she was still alive.

I got up with the sun and watched as activity resumed, then said goodbye to the men - the less attention I drew, the better.

A hand on my shoulder made me turn around.

"I'll go with you, Your Highness," said Berto, a man with a thick beard, who had traces of aging around his eyes on the rare occasions when he smiled, his gray hair revealing his age, forty-three, he had participated in more than twenty battles and still had nightmares about the bodies on the field.

"From here I'll continue alone," I said to him.

"I promised myself that I would live and die on the battlefield, fighting for Olimper."

"I'm going too" said Murilo right behind him "We'll be your reinforcements"

I looked at them uncomprehendingly, but nodded in respect for their decision.

"We'll have to be as discreet as possible, we can't leave too many traces of blood along the way. I'll find her, get her and leave as quickly as possible!" I spoke firmly, I knew it was a suicide mission and I didn't care, I needed to find Alexia and get her out of Octavian's clutches, I knew he was as cruel as Benjamin.

We waited until we saw a cart approaching, the man was talking to someone distracted standing a few meters from the gates, it was the perfect gap.

Lifting the tarpaulin, I climbed into the back of the wagon and the men followed, I slipped between the hay, I knew they were taking it to the stables to feed the horses, it was the perfect opportunity.

It didn't take a minute and the wagon started moving again. Even though it was dark, I could see that Murilo was about to sneeze by the look on his face.

"Hold on," I asked firmly and his expression changed.

Murilo didn't sneeze, then the cart stopped and the compartment was opened, I felt the flap move and heard the sound of footsteps and talking.

"Now," I said, getting up quickly and jumping out of the wagon, the men followed, I quickly turned around a column in order to go unnoticed, Berto tapped me lightly on the shoulder and I looked at him who was already leading the way, great, we had entered the castle without having to kill anyone or attract attention.

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